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Fundraising and Grant Resources for Tech Integration
March 25, 2011 | Mary Beth HertzIt's great to talk about integrating technology, but what if you're stuck in a classroom with little or no technology or in a school with limited resources?
Seek out free money!
Here are some great resources for getting technology into your students' hands.
Create a profile for your school. Anyone can make a donation toward your school. When you have enough funds in your account you can go shopping through the Digital Wish store. They also have grants.
Ongoing grants for anything from $200 to a flip cam. Submit a project idea and garner enough votes by the deadline and you win. There are constantly new grants announced.
Create a teacher account and submit a project proposal like a set of books or a digital camera. Solicit donations and get your project funded by a deadline. If your project is not funded by the deadline, any donations made to your project can be applied to another project. Many corporate donors fund projects, too.
Create a student team to solve a real-world problem and win hardware and a cash prize for your school. Requires a good amount of commitment, but epitomizes authentic learning. Competitions in various age ranges under 19 years old.
Sign up for a Target RedCard and get your families and teachers to do so as well. Then, Target will reward your school each time they make a purchase with the card.
Other Grant Resources
eSchoolNews has a great article on grant writing if you're looking to write a larger grant.
What's great about completing little projects is building up a formidable collection of technology over the course of a few years. You don't have to outfit your entire room in one year. Adding one new tool each year or twice a year will ensure that you and your students get the most out of your materials.
If you have other great resources, please share them here!
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Comments (7)
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Another Option
While not exclusively for education, Kickstarted [http://www.kickstarter.com/] is another option to gather donations for projects.
More resources
MB,
Some great resources! Donors Choose has been a savior for me.
Here are some more ideas and resources for funding, free stuff, and savings.
Sources of Funding and Free Stuff
Class Initiative
Hi Mary
You offered great suggestions to raise funds for technological integration! Personally, on the class level, my students and I have afterschool sales in order to buy schools supplies that we need. We set a target to buy an interactive Smartboard and thus far parents and students have been on board by donating items to sell.
It is also important for educators to also use whatever technological resources and tools they already have at their disposal. For instance, I have a personal digital camera that I carry to school and allow students to work on projects using Windows Movie Maker. I was amazed to see how enthused students were about creating their production. A rubric was used and students were view each other’s work and they were able to peer-edit each other’s work.
What do you think about having afterschool sales as a means to raise funds to acquire technological resources?
Alicia
I teach at an accredited
I teach at an accredited private school. We do such a great job in so many areas, but I really want to help our school transform students into 21st century learners!
Your resources may very well help us begin to reach that goal. So often we know what needs to be done, but we just don't know how to get started!
The opening line in reference
The opening line in reference to a school with little technology and limited resources fits my school like a glove. I am currently serving in a small private school that receives very little funding for technology. The walls are lined with chalkboards, not Smartboards. We have aprox. 4 computers per classroom and one computer lab room with 12 units. I appreciate your list of resources and hope it will open up some avenues of funding so our students can begin to acquire the technology literacy skills they need in today's world.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for these
Thank you so much for these resources! I have limited technology use at my school, and what technology that is there, is falling apart! I have looked online trying to find grants that I can apply for, but have not tried any of the ones you mentioned.
In the town I teach in, there is a Wal-Mart Distribution Center and I just contacted them about helping provide funds for technology.
Hopefully if I apply and ask everywhere that I can, something will come through!
Once again, thank you so much!!